


every time we kissed there was another apple to slice into pieces

by cashewdani



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Nanny, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-24
Updated: 2014-01-24
Packaged: 2018-01-09 19:52:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1150113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashewdani/pseuds/cashewdani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry's a nanny in New York.  Niall's his boyfriend.  It's summer.  That's it.  That's the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	every time we kissed there was another apple to slice into pieces

**Author's Note:**

  * For [miss_bennie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_bennie/gifts).



> The lovely miss_bennie is celebrating her birthday on Friday, and what better way to celebrate that than giving her the gift of absolute wretch? N, THIS IS FOR YOU. ALSO, NIALL'S HAIR IS BROWN IN THIS, OBVIOUSLY, BUT ALSO, FYI.
> 
> Title is from Richard Siken's _Crush_. And clearly this is a work of ridiculous fiction.

[ ](http://smg.photobucket.com/user/cashewdani/media/cashewdani015/summerinthecity_zpsab87c4dd.png.html)

“I don’t know how you do this all the time,” Niall says from the kitchen table, rubbing at yesterday’s sunburn under the strap of his tank top. “Seriously, mate, how do you not sleep for sixteen hours a day, it’s insane!”

“Oh, I’d sleep if they let me. Do you think I wanted to get up at 7:15 to make pancakes that look like sand castles? Which,” Harry holds up a blob of cooked batter, “does this look right?”

“If you’re trying to have them look like castles after the tide’s come up, yeah, spot on.” Niall yawns, and takes another sip of his coffee. “Will they nap at some point?”

“They’re six and nine, they don’t nap anymore.”

“Can _I_ nap today?”

“If you want to miss out on Coney Island, sure, be my guest.”

“Wait. Today’s the beach? I can totally sleep on the beach!”

“Yeah, it’s Thursday,” Harry gestures at the calendar on the fridge with the spatula. “Beach day. Wait, why did you think I was making these?”

“I have no idea why you do any of this stuff for breakfast. Just pour some cereal on the floor for them like the animals they are.”

“We’re not animals,” Chloe huffs upon entering the kitchen, a very lopsided French braid in her hair that Harry had done a few short moments ago. “You’re the animal, Niall.”

Harry doesn’t even try to stifle the laugh that bursts out of him, so forceful it’s loosened a few curls from the bandana he’s wrapped around his head.

“Hey, discipline your charges, Haz,” Niall says, playfully sticking his tongue out at Chloe.

“I can’t yell at her for being honest.”

“What about me reminds you of an animal, Chlo?” he asks.

“You kind of smell like an animal,” and Harry is laughing so hard he’s probably going to start crying and burn up their breakfast.

“That’s just my natural musk, yeah. That’s what a man’s supposed to smell like.” He yells towards the playroom, leaning back in his chair so there’s only two feet still on the ground. “Zach, tell your sister. I know they taught that to you in kindergarten.”

Harry says, “If I ever am able to hear that child’s voice from another room, he’s probably really hurt. He’s not going to answer you.”

“He’s quiet,” Chloe informs Niall like he hasn’t spent a lot of time with these kids already. They’ve watched _Hook_ on an inflatable screen in the park, Zachary curling up in Harry’s lap every time a pirate appeared on screen, ventured into Brooklyn for _Spumoni Gardens_ , and walked the High Line where Chloe had insisted on making him a flower crown under her nanny’s tutelage. And today, apparently, the beach and the aquarium and maybe some rides if he’s understanding all the little doodles on the calendar accurately.

Niall asks, “Are we going to a zoo any time soon? Because I think these kids need to be taught a little summat about animals.”

“Next Tuesday if it doesn’t rain. And if you don’t have a shift.”

“Someone else pours the coffee on Tuesday.”

Harry says, “Good,” with one of those big smiles that lights up his whole face and most of the kitchen. He flips the misshapen pancake in the pan that probably is supposed to have turrets but that looks more accurately like a hamburger bun someone stepped on. “Bean, you want blueberries or strawberries?”

“Chocolate chips,” Chloe says without looking up from her iPad.

“I don’t think that was one of the options.”

She sighs. “Fine, blueberries.”

“Good choice. Please go get your brother.”

She sighs again, pushing her chair away from the table like this is the greatest hardship she’s ever endured. “You look like this llama, Niall, just saying,” she tells him, sliding the iPad in his direction where there is currently some animal that okay, yes, happens to have very similar bedhead.

“I think this is in alpaca, Chlo, see, we need to take them to a proper zoo, get them educated,” but Harry is laughing much too hard to listen to him.

\---

“Alright, line up, eyes closed, arms out,” Harry says, shaking the can of Coppertone in his hand.

“I don’t see why I have to be part of this too,” Niall says at the end of the line next to Zachary. “I’m a grown man and this is embarrassing.”

“A grown man who whinged all night about how his pinked up shoulders hurt.” Harry had covered the kids from head to toe in SPF 45 before they’d even left the the townhouse for the subway, but that was two hours ago, so it was apparently time for a reapplication, according to some parenting website Niall’s guessing.

“I’m just saying, I don’t know how looking at sharks in a dark room would make my suncream stop working.”

“My God, do you see how accepting and quiet the _actual_ children are being about this? Now close your mouth because this stuff tastes disgusting.”

Niall feels the mist hit his skin, momentarily chilly, even though the sun is beating down on them. It smells like he’s standing in a cloud of pina coladas. And then he feels Harry’s hands, rubbing the lotion in, the metal from the two rings he’s wearing warm and smooth as they gloss over Niall’s arms and the spread of his chest. He opens his eyes to find Harry standing extremely close, looking him right in the face. He runs two of his fingers over Niall’s cheekbones and down the bridge of his nose.

“Now see? Was that so bad?” He’s got that look on like he’s an innocent guy who takes care of children for a living and has never had a filthy thought in his life. He’s going to pay for that later.

“Make sure you get my back,” Niall says. “And then I’m covering each of your tattoos. Slowly.” He leans in just a little closer, like maybe he’s going to kiss him, but is really just untwisting one of the charms on Harry’s necklace. Dropping the volume of his voice, so the kids hopefully preoccupied with towel placement can’t hear him, he says, “So you have time to think about my mouth on each of those spots.”

Harry groans and shoves at him, both his palm and Niall’s shoulder greasy and hot. He flops down in their $8 rental chair, putting an Iron Man towel on his lap, and telling the kids, “Go dip your feet in the ocean and report back with your findings.”

Niall smirks, slipping on his sunglasses, as their little legs run towards the surf.

\---

Harry has them bury him in the sand as payback. He was half asleep on his back, the inside of his eyelids glowing bright red, when he’d felt the first heavy plop of sand above his belly button. Followed quickly by another on his breastbone.

“Shhhh,” Zachary had said. “Don’t wake him up!” and so Niall had just lain there, eyes closed, trying not to laugh as they discussed their contingency plans. They were using the tupperware containers Harry had packed their lunches in: carrot sticks and peanut butter whole wheat sandwiches with strawberry jelly and no crusts and the fattest grapes Niall had ever seen. They’d been promised hot dogs at Nathan’s later if they’d eaten everything, although Niall’s sure this was probably a pretty good motivator too.

He feels Harry brush some rogue grains of sand off his forehead, and then start stroking through his hair, the scratch of Harry’s short fingernails along his scalp. “He likes it when I do this and he’s sleeping,” Harry tells them, like it’s a secret, and Niall feels all of his muscles relaxing. He’s loose and warm under the blanket of sand, and sod the zoo, they’re coming here every day it’s lovely.

Eventually though, once they’ve already draped him in shreds of seaweed and given him seashell nipples, he can tell the novelty has worn off, so he pops his eyes open as dramatically as he possibly can. “What did you do?!” he asks, in mock irritation, and they shriek and giggle, slipping on their towels as they try to back away.

He pretends to struggle, thrashing his torso side to side like he can’t lift his limbs, but then he bursts forth, chasing their scattering little bodies around the beach. He catches Zachary first, tossing him over his shoulder and grabs the straps of Chloe’s bathing suit in his next two strides.

“That’s it, you’re both going in,” he says, and they’re begging and pleading, please’s and no’s and we’re sorry’s, nearly hyperventilating with laughter as Niall pretends to chuck them into the Atlantic.

\---

No matter how many wet naps Harry pulls out of his backpack, Zachary still has food on his face. Ketchup from the hot dog and cheese sauce off the crinkle fries and then the bright pink smears of cotton candy Niall had bought to share with everyone.

“If one of them pukes later, that’s on you,” Harry says, wiping again at Zach’s cheek.

“Come on, we’ll be fine, yeah? What’s a boardwalk without all of this? Plus we had to celebrate seeing that guy swallow the sword!”

“I want to ride the Cyclone, can we ride the Cyclone? I think I’m finally tall enough this year!” Chloe asks, bouncing around with impending excitement and too much Cherry Coke.

“What about Balloon Expedition? We can all do that,” Harry suggests. “Or the speed boats?”

“The speed boats are for babies. I want to do the Cyclone.”

“I’ll go with you, if you want,” Niall says. “I like coasters. That cool, Haz?”

“I don’t know. Zach, you want to watch your sister and Niall go on the coaster?”

“I don’t have to, right?” His little face has gone all dark and panicked and he’s gnawing on his lower lip in a way that’s making Niall concerned he’s going to break the skin.

“Nah, not at all, Bud,” Harry says, ruffling his hair. “We’ll stay on the ground and wave at the crazies, yeah? Let Chloe Bean have a little bit of adventure?”

“Okay,” Zachary says, slipping one hand into Harry’s and the other up to his mouth.

“Count and breathe and then that thumb has got to leave,” Harry says, gently, and Zachary pulls the fingers away from his face after a few steps.

The line is long, but Harry gets the kids playing a game of I Spy, teaching them periwinkle, chartreuse and vermillion along the way, and then they’re at the front.

“You sure you want to do this?” Harry asks Chloe. “Because if we just turn around and go to ride the Teacups, that’s totally okay.”

“I want to do this, Harry!” she says, and there’s no fear there, just excitement, and if Harry’s still working for the Price family when this girl hits puberty, he’s in for it.

“Let’s do this then!!” Niall cheers, letting her into the car first.

\---

So, Harry might have been right about the puking, which is made worse by the fact that Niall realizes it while his head’s inside a refuse bin.

He moans, and Harry keeps rubbing his back in those big circles. “You’re okay.”

“I have never felt this sick from a ride before. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this sick.”

“Well, you’re not a kid anymore,” and that’s too much to endure on top of how his insides feel.

“Can we get funnel cake? I won’t tell Mom when she calls from the Hamptons to say good night,” Chloe asks, and Niall heaves again onto a copy of _The Daily News_.

\---

It took four readings of _Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed_ (one by Niall, one by Chloe and two by Harry), one hunt for Blankie, and three glasses of water (one Zachary, two Niall), before the kids let them close the bedroom doors and everything inside remained relatively quiet.

Niall helps Harry straighten up the bathroom, tossing the bathing suits and towels into a hamper, and wiping the wall art made with bath crayons. Niall takes a picture on his phone first though, of course, of the heart Zachary’d drawn with a capital n and lower case h inside of it.

“I don’t want to go to work tomorrow,” he sighs. “What are you guys doing?”

“Storytime at the library in the morning. Probably lunch at this cafe where there’s this really cute barista that I know.”

“Yeah?”

“He presses a mean panini.” Harry smiles at him, his face tanner than this morning, and Niall leans in to kiss him, happy he’d left a toothbrush here and had used it six times once they got back.

The way that Harry sighs, content and calm, is exactly the way that he makes Niall feel, and he presses a little harder, pulls a little closer, struggles against everything building up in his chest. “I should go home,” he whispers out, while their foreheads touch and they try to catch their breath.

“What? Why?” Harry asks, concerned. “Do you still not feel good?” He puts his hand up to Niall’s cheek, like he’s checking if he has a fever, and Niall can only imagine how hot his skin feels. How flushed he probably is.

“No, just...if we stay, we’re going to do something.”

“Yeah,” Harry says. “Figured that was the point.”

Niall says, “The kids are here,” because yeah, they’ve only ever hooked up at Niall’s on Harry’s nights off, on his little twin bed in what is basically a closet, but where the only person who might see something is a very worldy Zayn Malik.

“They’re asleep.”

“Well, what if they stop being asleep?”

“I have a lock on my door. And what exactly do you think they’ll see, Ni? Something good?” His green eyes are dancing with mischief and Niall hates him as much as he likes him.

“I just don’t want to fuck them up. You’re not exactly quiet. And like, if we’re in bed together...”

Harry states, “They saw us in bed this morning,” plain, because, yes, technically that is true. 

But they’d just passed out after the late night car ride home from Battery Park and also, “I was wearing clothes then.”

“Yeah, so, you might have to put your pants back on afterward, sorry, mate. And I’ll be quiet.”

“Will you?”

“You might have to make me,” he says, mouth looking so incredibly pink and sinful, and all Niall can think about is it pressed up against his palm, Harry’s breathy exhalations muffled by his own skin. “It’s really fine, Ni. People have sex in their houses with kids there all the time. That’s how they have more kids.”

But Niall doesn’t want to think about the kids any more, he just wants to think about Harry until he’s not capable of thinking of anything any more.

He kisses Harry again, more sloppy and desperate than before, knowing he’s going to get to climb into the crisp sheets in Harry’s room instead of riding the swampy 6 train home.

When he licks at Harry’s throat, it tastes like salt, like cotton candy smudges, like summer, and this, this is where Niall wants to be forever, tasting Harry on his tongue.


End file.
